Is Barack Obama an illegal alien? The two presidential candidates spoke at a New York charity dinner on Wednesday and took playful shots at each other and their own reputations in surprisingly entertaining fashion. Barack Obama evenrevealed his secret identity: "Contrary to the rumors you have heard, I was not born in a manger. I was actually born on Krypton and sent here by my father, Jor-El, to save the planet Earth." [Boston Globe] (Note: This isn’t the first Democrat to channel the Man of Steel’s origin story…)

Beam up: There are even more early-look "Star Trek" photos posted [Entertainment Weekly] … And now there’s more spoilers about the J.J. Abrams reboot as well as word that a trailer for the 2009 movie will be shown with "Quantum of Solace," the James Bond film that opens Nov. 14. [Ain’t It Cool News]

May Durlong interviews Mark Wahlberg who said he was leery about taking the title role in "Max Payne" because the film concept is adapted from a video game. "When I read the script a bit of a red flag popped up only because I grew up playing Pac-Man and Asteroids and there’s not much of a story there. But Max Payne has an elaborate story that’s very cinematic. I don’t care where stories come from as long as they’re interesting and there’s a fresh way to tell them. There are only so many stories to tell anyway." [Newsarama]

A space "Odyssey": Warner Bros. plans to team Brad Pitt with filmmaker George Miller (the Aussie director and writer of "Mad Max" and the Oscar-winning "Happy Feet") to make a sci-fi adaptation of "The Odyssey." Pitt, apparently, is the biggest Homer fan in Hollywood: "Pitt played Achilles in the Wolfgang Petersen-directed ‘Troy,’ a global blockbuster that David Benioff adapted from ‘The Iliad.’ Both Homer poems dealt with the Trojan War; ‘The Odyssey’ focused on the exploits of Odysseus, who hatched the idea to build the Trojan Horse. ‘The Odyssey’ deals with his long journey home after he declines to become a god." [Variety]

Matt Blum has been giving a lot of thought to nerd cinema — but maybe not enough. He’s come up with ‘The 10 Best Geek Characters in Mainstream Movies" a list that includes Belle from "Beauty and the Beast," David Lightman from "WarGames," Indiana Jones and, of course, "The Geek" from "Sixteen Candles." Wait, what about Jerry Lewis as the Nutty Professor or Cary Grant in "Bringing Up Baby"? No mention of "Revenge of the Nerds"? And what about nerd icons like Hermione or Clark Kent? [Geek Dad blog, Wired]